HSW Floors started in 2007 as another hardwood flooring company in the north Texas area, providing homeowners with beautiful, custom-finished, durable, hardwood flooring that will last a lifetime. Fast forward to 2020 and we are still installing and finishing fine wood floors but we are also serving our clients in new ways. One of these is by walking with them through the challenges of a water damage event in their homes. To understand how we got to where we are today, we must go back a few more years.

Going back in time 21 years to 1999, I graduated from the University of North Texas with a degree in finance and headed off into the financial services industry with a desire to help people make great investments in their future. I earned four securities licenses and worked for a few of the most recognizable names in finance and banking at the time. But after four years, I was looking for something that was a better fit for me. That led me to remodeling and home improvement contracting.

The process of working with homeowners to design and build their dream kitchen, dream bathroom, dream office, etc was fresh and exciting. The satisfaction of seeing the old carpet, trim, cabinets, and light fixtures go out to the dumpster to be replaced by new things was a far more satisfying experience compared to going into an office every day to sell mutual funds and insurance. But the philosophy was strikingly similar: help clients make smart investments in their homes that will add value and improve their quality of life . It took years to build the relationships and experience to be able to manage projects effectively. It was always a team effort.

Back in 2006, I was part of a team remodeling a house in Highland Village and we had a particularly unsatisfying experience with the hardwood flooring contractor. I kept hearing about how busy these guys were and how much demand there was for hand-scraped hardwoods that are easier to care for and harder for the average family to beat up. It was suggested to me, why don’t you start a specialty hardwood flooring company? I set out to make some new relationships and find ways to make the process easier and more customized to suit my customer’s needs.

HSW Floors was born and we immediately started offering custom hardwood flooring along with all the other ancillary services that are needed to complete the upgrade process: doors, trim, paint, moving furniture, etc. HSW Floors was also one of the first adopters of using water-based polyurethane finishes in the area. At the time, every contractor was still using the old, stinky oil-based poly. The benefits to my homeowners were many and the value was certainly appreciated.

Somewhere in the last 13 years, I started to notice that some of my customers weren’t upgrading their homes by choice… they were forced into a home renovation project by a catastrophic water damage event! Sometimes the source of the problem was a water heater, a toilet, a leaking refrigerator, or a washing machine. Each time the process was the same. Once the homeowner figured out that the cost to repair the damages was more than their insurance deductible, they filed and claim and a complicated process started.
Fascinated by this, I decided that I needed to understand more about the process. I worked with another water-damage mitigation and restoration contractor for a while until I felt that I could do as good or a better job than they were.

HSW Floors has evolved over the years from providing investment-grade flooring and renovation support to now providing guidance and support through the water-damage insurance claim process. Along the way, I’ve earned a few more certifications and invested in professional drying and monitoring equipment. My personal mission from the beginning of my career has been to help people build and protect their investments and the way I do that now is through a combination of specialized experience in the construction world and the insurance world. There aren’t many custom remodelers that have experience drying out a wet house, putting it back together, and negotiating with an insurance adjuster.